Published on August 30, 2019.
This article introduces a Sankei Shimbun editorial criticizing South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s statement that Takeshima was “the first victim of Japanese imperialist aggression.”
Referring to Takeshima’s historical status as Japanese territory, the Rusk letter, the San Francisco Peace Treaty, the Syngman Rhee Line, South Korea’s illegal occupation, and the shooting incidents involving Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels, it argues that South Korea is the party that invaded Takeshima.

August 30, 2019.
As expected of the very person responsible for driving Japan-South Korea relations into their worst state… it is South Korea that has invaded Takeshima and is making “a baseless claim that it is its own territory.”
The following is from today’s Sankei Shimbun editorial.
It was South Korea that invaded Takeshima.
President Moon’s statement.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, referring to Takeshima, Shimane Prefecture, Oki-no-shima Town, which South Korea is illegally occupying, said that it was “the first victim of Japanese imperialist aggression,” and criticized Japan for making “a baseless claim that it is its own territory.”
As expected of the very person responsible for driving Japan-South Korea relations into their worst state.
It is an outrageous delusion.
I would like to return his statement to Mr. Moon exactly as it is.
It is South Korea that has invaded Takeshima and is making “a baseless claim that it is its own territory.”
Since he seems not to know the truth, let us teach him.
Takeshima has historically and consistently belonged to Japan, and South Korea’s claim has no basis.
From the beginning of the seventeenth century at the latest, Japanese people used it as a relay point for fishing and other activities.
There are many past documents and maps that serve as evidence.
When Takeshima was incorporated into the administrative district of Shimane Prefecture in Meiji 38, no country protested.
The international community also recognized it as Japanese territory.
After the last war, during the period when Japan was occupied by the Allied Powers, South Korea claimed sovereignty over Takeshima, but in August of Showa 26, the U.S. government informed South Korea, in a letter from Assistant Secretary of State Rusk, that Takeshima was Japanese territory.
The San Francisco Peace Treaty, signed in September of the same year, also did not recognize any abandonment of Takeshima.
However, in January of Showa 27, the Syngman Rhee administration of South Korea unilaterally established the “Syngman Rhee Line” in the Sea of Japan, claiming sovereignty over coastal waters, included Takeshima within it, and began seizing Japanese fishing boats.
This was done immediately before Japan recovered its sovereignty through the coming into force of that treaty in April of Showa 27.
In June of Showa 28, Shimane Prefecture and the Japan Coast Guard landed on the island, erected a territorial marker, and made the South Korean fishermen who had gathered there leave.
However, the following month, an incident occurred in which South Korean officials who had landed on Takeshima fired on a Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel.
In August of Showa 29, a patrol vessel was hit by about two hundred bullets.
The occupation of the Northern Territories is a state crime by Stalin, but the occupation of Takeshima is the same by Syngman Rhee.
South Korea has stationed an armed police unit trained by the military there and repeatedly carries out military exercises.
It was only natural that the U.S. State Department expressed displeasure, saying that the South Korean military’s Takeshima exercises on the 25th and 26th were “not productive.”
President Moon seems so overwhelmed by victim consciousness that he cannot understand that his own country is the perpetrator.
He should learn from historical facts and return Takeshima to Japan.